Kingdoms of Amalur will have a complex, chromatic score played by huge orchestras of 90+ people, but no farting Gorillas, sadly. See the orchestra doing its thing over shots of Amalur's massive locations, and hear audio director, Grant Kirkhope describe what it's like to write big music for a big game. You can step into the Kingdom of Amalur to absorb the musical ambience and hit things in the demo, available now on Steam. It's out on February 7 in the US and February 10 in Europe.

Today I accidentally knocked over Owen's coffee, and SAW THE FACE OF WAR. It looked like this: >:(

All the soldiers in Crytek's free to play multiplayer shooter, Warface, make this face at all times, even in victory. Sadly they're all facing away from the camera in the three new screenshots over on RPS, doing soldiery things like shooting mechs from the cover of a shattered tree stump. One chap is firing and sliding simultaneously, one of Crysis 2's most common manoeuvres.

Warface will have class-based competitive multiplayer, co-op missions and a “constantly updated extensive PVE universe." It's built with CryEngine 3 as well, so it'll be Maximum Pretty. See for yourself in these carefully posed shots.

What if Hitler cloned a giant army of dinosaurs to fight for him during WW2? If you mounted two turrets onto a T-Rex's face, could it still chuck bombs only using his huge mouth? These kinds of questions used to only be answered in our dreams, but thanks to the open-minded dev team behind Dino D-Day, we now do daily epic battle with Nazi dinosaurs during waking hours as well. This far-out FPS lets you enlist in either the dino-heavy Axis team or the gun-wielding Allies for an explosive, all-out deathmatch for supremacy.

The dev team's made some glorious propaganda posters for this alternate reality war, and we have high-res versions of the five best right here. Let them them stomp around as your background. And make sure you don't let your grandpa, who actually served in the war, see them—he just won't understand.

The word of the day was 'transmogrification'. It's the technique that allowed World of Warcraft high earner The Mogfather to transform the auction house into a fashion boutique, and it's also the process by which Blizzard are hoping to turn Blizzcon 2012 into two games and an expansion pack. Meanwhile, The Darkness 2 demo offers you a taste of what it might be like to transmogrify into a gangster who transmogrifies into a tentacled primaeval monstrosity that transmogrifies people into terrified bits of meat.

Elsewhere in the world of PC gaming, Zynga continued to transform other people's ideas into suspiciously similar-looking games, and the Raspberry Pi mini-computer set out to turn the kids of today into the programmers and computer scientists of tomorrow. All this and more after the jump.


Edge explores the allegations of idea theft that Facebook game dev Zynga has incurred over the years.
The chaps behind the brilliant Monaco take us through a level from the game.
Beefjack track down some corridor-heavy footage of STALKER Online.
Mode 7's Paul Taylor writes in-depth about the making of Frozen Synapse over on Gamasutra.
GamesIndustry.biz have a long talk with Eben Upton, the man behind Raspberry Pi.
GAME tell Eurogamer that "a gremlin" removed PC games from their online store.
IGN's Keza MacDonald writes about the history of LGBT characters in gaming.
With SOPA gone for the time being, RPS investigates other pieces of anti-piracy legislation with similar aims.

 
If you could transmogrify anything into anything else, what would you transmogrify? I would probably turn myself into a thesaurus.

Fresh off the heals of the Lord of the Rings Online expansion that pit us against Saruman, Rise of Isengard, players will finally get to take their first step in the realm of Theoden himself, Rohan! I sat down with the game's executive producer, Kate Paiz, to hear all about the new content, gameplay mechanics and adventure coming to ring-chasers this Fall.

Before we get into the specific details of the expansion, let's focus on how players will get there.

The first update related to the Fall expansion is tentatively scheduled for this spring, and will return players to the footsteps of the fellowship by sending them to the Great River region. This area—south of Lothlorien and north of Fangorn—is the region that the fellowship traveled through before they were separated. The biggest new feature in this update will be the ability to summon Skirmish Soldiers (currently trapped inside the skirmish instances you run) in the general landscape. That's right, your trusty companion in those countless skirmishes will no longer be relegated to helping you wipe the floor with Sauron's minnions where only a few can bear witness, but will be free to help defend you as you travel all of Middle-Earth. While the exact mechanics aren't finalized yet, Paiz said that players shouldn't expect any major overhauls to combat mechanics of the soldier system.

I asked Paiz if my soldier would ever be able to join me in an instance if we're running one man short, and she stated that it's being looked at, but that she can't say anything definite at this point.



As Turbine moves players through this Lone-lands-sized region, getting ever closer to Rohan, they'll still release the usual near-monthly patches with quality-of-life fixes, bug fixes, and possibly a new festival as well. Paiz was light on details about the festival, but I'm excited to see what the next one will bring.

At some point in the Fall, the wait will be over, and Riders of Rohan will arrive like a thundering herd. The expansion will include the largest region LOTRO's ever seen. Rohan is a vast kingdom, allowing players to level to the new cap of 85 while exploring its expansive terrain. And this massive zone will only cover the East plains of Rohan, so you'll have to wait for the next expansion to visit the legendary Helm's Deep--which is located near the Western border of the region.



While a new, huge region is cool and all, what really made me excited about the expansion was that it will introduce of mounted combat to the game. The generically named War Steed will become player's newest ally in the fight again Sauron. These trusty companions will level with the players, and have upgradable armor to tweak their appearances and performance. This sounds like a great idea in theory, but I'm slightly worried that this might follow the path of Legendary Weapons, and become more headache and hassle for players to deal with than its worth.

Fighting on horseback will open up a whole new type of combat and leveling experience, Paiz explained to me. There will still be some traditional questing areas in the new zone, such as Amon Hen (where Boromir died and the fellowship split), but Paiz told me that the plains of Rohan will feature roving band of enemies that players will engage more fluidly. When you first spot the clouds of dust in the distance, you'll have to decide if you want to flee the incoming riders and run away, or charge into the battle on your War Steed, clashing with the enemy. This sounds like it could be an interesting twist on the traditional MMO quest grind setup, and I'm anxious to see how it's implemented.



I pressed Paiz hard to answer my two most-burning questions, but when I heard her saddening answers, I kind of wish I hadn't asked.

Do we have any chance of seeing the Battle of Helms Deep in this expansion? Negative.

Will Ent Session Play ever be a reality? Laughter that wasn't very reassuring.

Swallowing my crushing disapointment, I tried to bolster my excitement for mounted combat with the stirring quote from J.R.R. Tolkien's classic:
"Arise! Arise, Riders of Theoden! Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered! A sword day... a red day... ere the sun rises!"

Like every competitive shooter, Battlefield 3 has a problem with hackers and cheats who use exploits and aimbots to boost their stats. Recently the problem seems to have become more serious. The unofficial BF3 blog mentions an instance in which one of DICE's own moderators was uncovered as a hacker. Now a group of hackers are advertising an exploit that allows them to get innocent players banned.

The author of this Reddit post got in touch yesterday with links to hacker forum discussions revealing exploits that would trick Punkbuster into ejecting honest players. A number of threads on the Battlelog forums have been started by players claiming to have been banned from Battlefield 3 games without cause. There are plenty of reports of servers and leaderboards dominated by bots racking up hundreds of kills.

DICE have recently said that they're ramping up anti-cheat measures and have been issuing bans en-masse to cheaters they've been catching, but among Battlefield 3 players there's increasing scepticism over the levels of security offered by anti-cheat program, Punkbuster.

Battlefield 3 community manager crash7800 responded to the Reddit post saying "we're absolutely looking into this issue." They're currently looking into the hackers' claims to establish how much of what they say is true. "We definitely know that something isn't right and we're working to fix it ASAP." DICE's most recent Battlelog post recognises that some players have been having problems dropping from Punkbuster servers. Their advice to affected players is to "join servers that are not running PunkBuster."

If you encounter a cheater in Battlefield 3, DICE recommend reporting them through Battlelog. To do this, you can "enter the profile page of the person you suspect and click the triangle in the top right corner of his name." This will lead to a report screen where the devs encourage players to "enter as much detail as possible, describing what specifically makes you believe this player has used unfair methods, and preferably include a link to the Battle Report for the match in question."

We've contacted DICE for comment on the hackers' claims and more detail on ther their plans to counter cheaters. It's not just hackers that Battlefield 3 fans have to contend with. Many players, including ourselves, have constant difficulty getting into games. Once in, disconnections are a regular annoyance. I wrote about why Battlefield 3 deserved our Online Game of the Year award. I still think the game underneath the connection problems and cheating scandals is world class, but with so many problems three months after release, player patience will understandably be wearing thin.

Do you have a penchant for all things related to 1996 computer game Quake and its numerous sequels and spin-offs? Do you own a computer that’s reasonably portable, and have an interest in LAN gaming? Are you free on 2-5 August 2012? Do you live in or around Dallas, Texas, or have the ability to get there for said dates? Do you want to get exclusive news and hands-on experiences with upcoming games from the likes of Bethesda and id? Do you enjoy being brainwashed by corporate sponsorship from 22 different companies? Do you? DO YOU?

If so, there is absolutely no event suitable for you occurring in the next year. Apart, maybe, from , which is taking place at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas on 2-5 August 2012. It’s free and run by volunteers, and in 2010 it attracted some 8,500 people. You might even rub shoulders some of the incredibly famous and good-looking people from PC Gamer there.

Paradox Interactive’s CEO, Fredrik Wester, is an outspoken man. He’s one of the most honest company directors you’ll ever come across in the games industry, and he’s not afraid to lambast his own games - most of which are hardcore strategy titles like Hearts of Iron and King Arthur. The games are intricate and rewarding, but getting gamers into them can prove problematic.

“Our games leave you high and dry in the first ten minutes,” Wester told us. The trick to making their games accessible is not to make the game itself simpler, but to hold the player's hand as they're gently introduced to the game world and its rules. “We don’t want to dumb down the experience. We want it to be challenging, but not a chore to learn.”

Total War developers Creative Assembly are masters of introducing complex strategy elements to a more casual audience, and Wester is keen to note that their slickness hasn't gone unnoticed among people who played Paradox's RPG/RTS King Arthur: The Role Playing Wargame. “A lot of people would like to see Total War-like design decisions and maybe we should have chosen that path, done things that make it simpler for people who are used to the same gameplay style,” he said. “I’m not suggesting that it’s actually Fantasy: Total War, but it’s an obvious comparison.”

Paradox have focused on making things more Total War-y for their upcoming RTS King Arthur II. "We’ve been working with a more in-depth tutorial in the second game," Wester said. "We will also have a pre-campaign to help people come into the game. A lot of people would like to see more Total War-like design decisions, like how to scroll with the mouse, things that are done in the Total War series."

Wester's other touchstone in ease of access is World of Warcraft. "I think a lot of people are mixing accessibility with ‘dumbed-down’," Wester said. "If you take a game like World of Warcraft that’s an incredibly complex game at level 80 - but you don’t figure out that it’s complex because you learn as you play."

I hate the quandary between stats versus looks in MMOs. That's why I love transmogrification; it lets you copy the appearance of one magical item onto another. In practice that means you can take two items: one powerful, one dapper and combine them to make a pretty thing with great stats.

The concept is nothing new, but it wasn't introduced to World of Warcraft until last November's patch 4.3. One man - appropriately known as The Mogfather - saw potential for extreme virtual wealth.

The Mogfather's goal was to prove how profitable the transmogrification could be. Players aren't able to sell any products created by the process, but that didn't deter the entrepreneur. He started buying up auctions for cheap armour that looked cool: "When I looked at those armor sets that were primarily made up of lower-level items from The Burning Crusade and vanilla, my design eye kicked in," the Mogfather told Joystiq. And he did all this before patch 4.3 landed.

Then, once the new feature hit, he relisted his designer items at a higher price based purely on their aesthetic appeal. "I took the pricing spread of fashion and brought it to my markets."



People wanted to look cool, and were willing to pay top dollar for the privilege. 45 days later the Mogfather hit WoW's gold cap of one million gold. Then he decided to give his fortune away: "In all seriousness, giving away that much gold has been pretty difficult," says the Mogfather. He has experienced four insta-bans after all.

It started with a gift of 400K to a random player. Blizzard assumed the Mogfather was a gold seller and instantly banned him. Then he gave 100k to 100 players and got rebanned But over time he established some "fans" within Blizzard's customer service team who realised his wealth and generosity were genuine. According to The Mogfather they would be the ones to release him from his "prison cell" after each major giveaway.

Eventually, the Mogfather started targeting his gifts to promote his business: "I gave half a million gold to players who strutted around in their transmog outfits. So in a way, it was my way of giving back to the community that I had taken all the gold from." He was a bit like a modern day, fashion-conscious Robin Hood.

For more on The Mogfather's exploits, read the full interview on Joystiq, or follow him on Twitter.

Blizzard have announced that their massive annual convention won't be happening this year. Instead, they'll be devoting more time to finishing their many projects. "In light of our jam-packed schedule, we’ve decided to hold the next BlizzCon in 2013," Blizzard say in a statement on Battle.net, mentioning that they're currently "heavily focused on getting Diablo III, Mists of Pandaria, and Heart of the Swarm into players’ hands as soon as possible."

It's sad news for fans. Blizzcon is a mad, noisy celebration of some of PC gaming's biggest series. Blizzcon 2011 brought MMO and esports fans together, and hosted the announcement of World of Warcraft's next expansion, Mists of Pandaria. Having said that, it was obvious from the many developer panels and Q&As, that a lot of time had gone into getting demos and CG trailers ready for the show, time that could have been spent getting games finished.

In the light of the success of the massive Starcraft 2 pro finals at Blizzcon 2011, Blizzard announce that they will be staging the 2012 Battle.net World Championship, described as "a major global eSports event featuring some of the best pro-gaming competition in the world." It'll host StarCraft 2 and WoW Arena World Championship tournaments in Asia later this year.

Blizzard haven't announced any release dates for Mists of Pandaria and StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, and a post last week revealed major changes to Diablo 3 that will surely push it further back. Behind the scenes, work will continue on Blizzard's next big MMO, Project Titan. Are you disappointed by Blizzard's decision to delay Blizzcon 2012?